Photo Mechanic, Photoshop & Lightroom Workflow for Portrait Photography

[@GearJason]

Your skin retouching is AMAZING, please do a step by step video on that! 🙌🏼

[@juliatrotti]

Ahh thank you!! I'm working on a video about that at the moment, it'll be up this Saturday 💛

[@joescheller274]

@@juliatrotti I second this! I would love to know how you do frequency separation. I'm like slightly above nOOb level in PS and don't really understand why my frequency specific retouching looks so different than yours (which looks totally wicked). LOVE your videos dude, they're so great.

[@GearJason]

Great! Will be waiting for it.

[@Mr09260]

Yes Please !!

[@keerthikumar5490]

That voice of yours..... That's what makes us fall in love with your videos every time...

[@correnehankins731]

Love this. Yes please a full video in your PhotoShop retouching process and photo selection process!

[@kaemiller1725]

idk why but your voice makes me feel at peace, I've been watching your videos every night these past few weeks and your voice is so peaceful I could fall asleep listening LOL. But I also am a photographer as well and I love watching your videos! much love xoxo

[@KittySoftpaws21]

I have been learning how to use a DSLR for a bit now maybe 2 years? And I always see beautiful pictures but feel like for my taste, have too much post processing. But after I have found you, I have fallen in love all over again, you make your photos pop without losing that natural touch to it.. I've been binge watching all your videos and been shooting more than ever because you're honestly so inspiring ☺️ I'm still a newbie when it comes to Lightroom and Photoshop but you explain things so well that I've already learned to much from just a few videos

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you so much! That makes me so happy to hear 💛

[@james.yu1]

Watching you edit is oddly satisfying.

[@ktwo08]

Your retouching skills 😍👌🏽 I’ve watched all your videos on retouching and I’ve definitely improved because of your tutorials.

[@juliatrotti]

Thanks so much! That makes me so happy to hear 💛

[@simianinc]

Great shots! Love to see how Photo Mechanic works. Several KZbinrs have mentioned it, but I’ve never seen it used

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you and awesome, I'll be sure to include that step with Photo Mechanic next time :D

[@KaushalSoren]

I have to say you are working hard. Keep it up 👍 Luv your voice 😍❤️👌

[@maddisonsmith524]

I love these type of videos! I would love to see more in depth how you do your highlights and shadows in lightroom and retouching in photoshop xx

[@FlyenNun1]

Would love you to create tutorials on all the subjects you mentioned. Great information. Thank You Julia!!

[@mansoureh]

I used to edit it first on Photoshop then going to Lightroom. It is interesting to see you do it differently

[@DeziVlogs]

Your videos are so peaceful and informative. 😍💜📸

[@zachalvidrez3531]

Definitely interested in more skin retouching. :) love your stuff!

[@user-ow7bi3se2b]

Woah this was so good! I learned so much, thanks :)

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you :D

[@gremelelin]

I would love to see more of your workflow - perhaps a version where you go into more detail. Videos like these are amazing! I would also like to see more of what you say to your models when you shoot. How do you direct, if at all? Keep up the good work :)

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you! If you watch my behind the scenes videos on my channel, I share a lot of what I say during a photoshoot in terms of direction to the model, etc :)

[@MichelleCoxPhotography]

Great video. I need to create a video where I can record what I am doing on my computer. LOVE this!

[@allmariosarmiento]

I love your edits. Been learning a lot from your tutorials. Thanks!

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you :)

[@rehman24fps]

Never skip a second when Julia is using a 85mm! I wud love to see full editing process of 3 photos(of 3 different location u shot here) of this model. Also, do you ever think of shooting at night- I mean without natural light?

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you and that sounds like a good idea for a video! I just filmed an astrophotography video which I'm really excited to release soon :D And I'll think about what I can do with artificial lighting as well.

[@bohdanstadnyk9578]

Video about selecting photos would be a great :)

[@muninkiel4688]

Agree!

[@safirajennyfers8877]

I totally agree!

[@juliatrotti]

Awesome, I'll be sure to include that next time :D

[@ssuryakanta1]

Julia thanks once again for sharing ,m also going to do an outdoor portrait shoot very soon .

[@Smoothblue90]

Was sitting here in lightroom when this came up. Great video. I like that Narrative program. Thank you. for that. What monthly plan do you have for just using it as a helper to create collections. In Lightroom I usually put too many photos in a new collection, and then start removing the ones that to not make the cut.

[@Smoothblue90]

I contacted the people at Narrative. And they say every one of the paid plan allow you to do the collection organization. So you could do the cheapest plan and still be able to do the collection organization.

[@Smoothblue90]

I also recommended they contacted Julia to partner with a KZbin video that explains how it works. And that they give her a discount code to give to us. You never know.

[@juliatrotti]

Aw man you are so sweet, thank you for recommending me to them and I'm glad you liked my video 💛 I believe I have the cheapest plan as well, because I just export the jpgs once they are laid out in Narrative and then upload them myself to my blog. If you want to publish straight from Narrative then I believe you might need the next plan up from that instead.

[@AjalaKingsGreenstream]

I needed this Motiviation. Im about to edit 800 photos

[@mansoureh]

I agree with you zooming in and out would help a lot

[@akoldrone5874]

so do u edit in 8bit? what about 16bit to keep the most quality? and what color space do u use

[@livinggirl86]

Great video and beautiful photos. I'd love to know more about retouching images. Do you have any videos already on retouching portraits? Or tips on where to start learning..?

[@juliatrotti]

Thanks so much! I'm using frequency separation retouching for this shoot and I have a couple of videos on my channel about it already. I'm working on an updated tutorial about this which will go up this Saturday though!

[@vanessagomes5286]

I love your edits! Did you learn all by yourself or did you do a course on photoshop? ♥️♥️

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you! I learnt how to use Photoshop and Lightroom in lots of different ways, experimenting, my dad took me to a couple of seminars when I was younger and first getting into photography, learning new techniques while I was working as a professional retoucher, talking to other photographers about editing, etc! And then finding my style came through experimenting and trying different things until I found something that made me happy and made me feel like my photos were "complete" :)

[@Xtunfisch]

I would love a video about sharpening in post, different techniques and what to watch out for? I feel like when I sharpen in LR I get weird edges on pupils, nose etc and I can't figure out to avoid it.

[@fir3tripper]

The efficiency of the way you remove blemishes and smoothe out the skin and tone it is amazing (I know its speed up haha), is it just the blemish tool? (or clone?) x

[@juliatrotti]

Thanks so much! I'm using frequency separation retouching. I'm working on an updated tutorial about this which will go up this Saturday!

[@C_ns]

To be honest, I love every video you made 😳😳😳but definitely!! It would be so so nice if you can make more step about how you select photos!!! And hope that you can make some more tutorials about edit! I practice by following how your videos did, but It’s so hard to get clean but add some style to photos >< i think that’s because I over edited ...... hope there a video can explain more about analysis the “before” photos so make this edit step become better...... this is just my wish >< don’t be stressful and always thank you so much for making videos!!!!❤️❤️❤️

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you so much! I would love to make a video about selecting/culling, it's on my list :D And just in case you haven't seen it, I have lots of Lightroom & Photoshop editing tutorials on my channel and I will always be making more! Thanks for your feedback 💛

[@C_ns]

Julia Trotti thank you so much for your reply 😭😭😭 always so so so thankful every time you replied Don’t worry I watched every video you made 😉 as for tutorial videos, i will watch them so many time (to practicing my poor skill) Thanks again for your reply!!

[@jaejae9253]

wowie i love ur voice haha its so soothing

[@ericjamesfx]

Hi Julia, I know there’s a grain slider in Lightroom. And I love the look of the disposable film preset. Is the grain able to be adjusted with slider? Thanks for the great content as always! 😊

[@juliatrotti]

Yep definitely! You can remove the grain completely or make it more so if you want :D

[@ericjamesfx]

Julia Trotti Thank you 🙌🏽😊

[@funart1]

I really love your videos, Julia! Very informative. Can I ask about the specs of your computer system? Mine is just not running Lightroom well at all. It is so slow and I feel like it takes 3 times as long as it should to edit a photo session.

[@juliatrotti]

Thanks! I have an iMac i7, 4ghz with 16gb memory - hope that helps!

[@tristanmadridejo]

Video is amazing!! like to see the full detail in photoshop for stamp and freq of this session

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you! I'm working on an updated retouching video at the moment, it'll go up on Saturday! :D

[@tristanmadridejo]

@@juliatrotti Wow, never thought you'd reply and I can't wait to see, also if you go to LA would love to watch you shoot I'll be the assistant...haha

[@kvinconner4809]

good 💖

[@pblnlpalu]

Hi Julia, do you also print photos you have edited? Or some? Or no printing at all? Does the model in this case get the digital copies? How do you back up all these photos?

[@juliatrotti]

I personally don't print any of my photos - they are delivered and displayed digitally :) I have a video on my channel about my photography workflow which goes into my backup system! I'm going to make an updated version soon too.

[@anavillarreal2383]

Great video! I think a slower video on editing would be awesome:)

[@rhykko77]

Great shoot ! That model doesnt have a bad angle . I would rather see the Canon 85 1.4 L IS, vs the Sigma 85 1.4 .

[@juliatrotti]

Thanks! I'll hopefully be able to hire the Canon 1.4 soon to test that out as well :D

[@antoniozaribi4548]

Hi Julia.i have been a big fan of your work for a while. i love your videos and behind the scenes, i learn so much from them. thank you for all the help and inspiration you provide us at all times it's priceless. but i do have a very important question that i can't seem to get anywhere and i think it's very important to the workflow process. how do i know?, or better yet how do i get the correct skin exposure on the camera LCD what is it that i need to look at carefully about the skin exposure as i take the shot? especially if it's soft light or back lit situations and what do i need to avoid so i can achieve consistency through the whole photo shoot that regards the skin ? thank you again for all the help.

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you! That's a pretty big topic that I could make a whole video on! For me personally, I expose the picture for the skin and disregard the background a little bit sometimes. For me, the eyes and the face are the most important part of the photo so that's what I give most of my attention to while exposing. Aside from that, it comes down to personal and artistic preference. Experiment with different types of exposures, over exposing or under exposing the skin a little to work out what you prefer, then practice to be able to achieve that for all the shots that you take on a shoot!

[@antoniozaribi4548]

@@juliatrotti Thank you very much for the help Julia. every little bit helps. i have been trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together for sometime now. and direction of light plays a big roll i'm still figuring that out. but absolutely if you ever make a video about how to expose skin correctly with soft directional light (or back light )in certain conditions and the focus of light and shadows how they falls on face and eyes in a flattering way consistently through out the shoot , that would be immense. you have absolutely mastered that shoot.and because of that we can start develop our own style on such better note. and again thank you for everything you share here i can't say it enough. :)

[@abedphotograhy1096]

Which Mic do you use to record the audio ?

[@jeremyhearne13]

I would like to see exactly what you did for the overcast photos. I have the same problem you are talking about--the overcast light makes the eyes dark--would like to know the best way to retouch the eyes.

[@juliatrotti]

The only thing I did was what I showed and mentioned in this video by using an adjustment brush in LR and bringing up the exposure slightly to brighten the eyes :) Other than that, I retouched the image as I normally would!

[@tracyshankland]

How do you deal with photos that are strongly backlit? Do you ever use a reflector or flash outdoors or do you just adjust the exposure in Lr?

[@juliatrotti]

I have a video about shooting with natural backlight on my channel if you want to check it out, I think it would be really helpful to your question! :)

[@tracyshankland]

Julia Trotti Thank you - I’ll go and have a look at that.

[@jheelan]

Hi J love your work. I your video you said you were going for a natural look but at the same time you're removing all your model's skin details. Any reasons for that ? Thanks

[@juliatrotti]

Thank you! Ah this is a tricky question because it's so subjective. I've found during my time working in both fashion photography and portrait photography, that fashion has a different definition of "natural" when it comes to a final image. My version of a natural retouch in fashion photography comes from the different kinds of clients I've worked with over the years and what they end up being happy with with the images I deliver to them. This really differs in terms of what kind of work you offer as a photographer, what country you're from and what clients you work with! Hope that makes sense :)

[@gku2004]

@JuliaTrotti ... If you can only have one camera and one lens what would that be? A7III or 5d III or 5d IV? 35 mm, 50 mm, 85 mm? Thanks!

[@Smoothblue90]

@@gku2004 I deleted my posts. I can't help you.

[@gku2004]

@@Smoothblue90 Thank you Timzanation for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciated it.

[@juliatrotti]

That's a really big question! For camera body, out of those 3 there really isn't a massive difference. As for lenses though, I would probably go for a 50mm! I loooove the 35m but since I shoot weddings, I would need something with that little bit more reach so 50!

[@gku2004]

@@juliatrotti So if I buy the 5d iii instead of the 5d iv and if I don't care about the 4k I won't be missing out much? Iso and dynamic range wise? Thanks again in advance =)

[@stefanj3012]

Of the final selected images (the ones you did edit in PS) how many where taken using the Canon lens and how many with the Sigma lens?

[@juliatrotti]

The majority of the final shots were on the Sigma lens, but that's only because I hired it and wanted as many photos as possible on it :) So I only took extra comparison images on the Canon throughout the shoot and used the Sigma as my "main" lens.

[@jeannetteburch9352]

Do your photos have a mat effect? If you’re using a preset do you have them for sale?

[@juliatrotti]

Yeah, I usually go for the matte effect in my editing! I used my Disposable Film Lightroom Preset for this set: www.digitalfilmactions.com/lightroom-presets/#/disposable-film-lightroom-preset/ :)

What for program is the second one pleas? Narrative???

[@MarcoSergi92]

narrative.so/

[@spencer_sunnn]

Do a photoshop retouching tutorial!!

[@juliatrotti]

I just uploaded a retouching vid :D

[@Sadistikqueen]

what are you doing to retouch the images, what brushes are you using?

[@juliatrotti]

I'm using frequency separation retouching. I'm working on an updated tutorial about this which will go up this Saturday!

[@katykalash8061]

Could you please share a link to this Narrative program? Thanks!

[@juliatrotti]

narrative.so/ :)

[@JeffCreates]

My question on re-touching is "how much is too much". You've said you're trying to maintain a natural look and not make it look like a different model. I think in this run through you removed the same bump (for want of a better word) from her forehead. Would she expect that sort of thing to be removed by all photographers, or would some leave it in. Would you leave it in for some of the shots etc. How do you know where to stop?

[@juliatrotti]

I guess its different for everyone's personal preference and also depending on what kind of photography you're doing and what the client expects. For model portfolio shoots and fashion jobs, clients usually expect quite a lot of retouching. In the fashion world, I personally consider my retouching quite natural as you can still see skin texture and I leave anything that is part of a model in such as beauty marks, etc. As for knowing when to stop, it all comes down to practice! Even I still get carried away by accident sometimes, so something I like to do is go through all my photos one by one once I've completely finished editing them. Retouching for me can happen in one session and can also happen over the span of a few days, so my perception of what I'm doing can change over that time if that makes sense? So for me, I just like to review everything as a whole once I'm done and either do more retouching or go back and re-do anything that looks "too much" compared to the rest of the images.

[@fabio_f3.5]

what's the program that you use for choosing the photos to edit in photoshop?

[@juliatrotti]

I use photo mechanic first to select between all the photos (which wasn't included in this video), then the program that I use after that is Narrative! Which is what I showed here, but I use that once I have a general selection made already :)

[@fabio_f3.5]

@@juliatrotti Unfortunately only mechanical photo is avaible for windows. Thank you anyway!

[@juliatrotti]

I use it on Mac, so it's definitely available for both!

[@j.h.6215]

How do you take the photos from Narrative into Photoshop?

[@juliatrotti]

I don't! I take the highres exported files from Lightroom into PS :) Narrative is just in between to select the images, but I don't edit from there.

[@nnix]

I'm more interested in learning your step by step retouching process--settings/actions etc.

[@juliatrotti]

I have quite a few videos on my channel already which go in detail of each of these steps in case you haven't seen any yet :D

[@นัชนัชชา-ฬ8ฦ]

Fast & Furious

[@lalaishadove2223]

Video about photo mechanic please

[@KazuyaMASUDA1982]

👍

[@novr]

[@michelevittori7815]

[@jessicalynn2131]

The thumbnail, I thought it was Anna Paquin

[@jingimage1108]

wanna see how you remove eye bag, always do it unnaturally

[@Smoothblue90]

I am not Julia. I use an adjustment brush ... with the exposure bumped slightly to the right ... and clarity bumped a little more than slightly to the left. I saved my settings and call it Lighten Skin Wrinkles. I use a soft brush. I use a bigger brush for dark areas under the eyes and a smaller brush for smaller wrinkles. The "wrinkles" are still there, but the shadows and dark areas are gone.

[@jingimage1108]

timzanation thx a lot！

[@juliatrotti]

I have a few different methods I use depending on the image! I'll make a video about it soon :)

[@jingimage1108]

@@juliatrotti wow... looking forward to it!